Tiffany Rose

Here me out about this book.

I get the author's message. I get the author's intent. It's about a girl who loves going to the library and exploring books. (And a thumbs up for the library card end papers at the front of the book! And proving that picture books have some of the most advanced vocabulary within their pages!) Then, realizing that a lot of the Black narratives are ones of struggle and triumph over adversity (Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr) and not stories of adventures and superheroes, she seeks to create those narratives. It's a valid argument: up until recently, the only Black representation was more in nonfiction and about events along the Civil Rights moment. A black girl was not the protagonist in a story about food. (Or if it was it was about slavery and food)

Here's my problem, though. The byline of the book is "a love letter to libraries." To be honest, I did not get that vibe while reading "Dear Reader." If anything, I felt it was attacking the lack of Black girls in books. And that the library was a little responsible for perpetuating the cycle. I think that is misguided. Please visit my library and see that, now, we always have books on display that feature BIPOC characters. Characters doing seemingly everyday activities.

So, I guess don't call it a love letter. It was more of an OP/ED piece.… (mere)

I really enjoyed this book and would give it a higher rating if it weren't for one thing that really bugged me:

The authors reduce all manual languages in English speaking countries to "sign language" which is an ableist term for a non-existent language. The characters in this book from the US and the UK all speak this non-existent manual language instead of the languages they would actually speak - ASL in the US and BSL in the UK (statistically speaking, though there are other manual languages spoken in both countries). While ASL and BSL speakers could understand each other somewhat (I'm told by a friend who is very involved in international deaf advocacy), it would be difficult and slow. This story ignores the very real differences between manual languages in the US and UK for the sake of narrative convenience. Which, for a story with such great representation of LGBTQIA and POC characters, was very unfortunate.… (mere)